I am thrilled to be speaking about this pattern this week! It is the one that I felt really stood out when the yarn first came in and I cast it on straight away... although I shouldn't have... So much to do, so little time. Anyway, here's the pattern:
It is the one that stood out to me when I first got the yarn in a couple
of weeks ago and I think I cast it on that very day. Finished the front
up to the armholes on the front/back that very evening and then put it
aside to knit something in the King Cole Big Value Recycled Aran.
And then when I needed something a bit more lightweight to knit than a
big old aran I started on this again. Once you've got it on the circular
needles for the yoke and you start decreasing it really is a bish bash
bosh job and I think I got that bit knitted in about an hour at the shop
and an evening when I got home.
Here's Toni the reluctant model wearing it. I made the smallest size to fit best on the mannequin and I think Toni's about the only one of my regular customers that would fit it. Haha. But she's also in most often and doesn't mind stripping for me. :)
Anyway, a better photo:
I think the reason I like this so much is because it reminds me of the Eldora from last years Spring/Summer Rowan collection.
This is a classy top. The Patons' version has only three colours but I think my top tip for today will be bugger the pattern and use LOADS of colours! I must admit, when you look briefly at the Patons' one it already looks like more than three colours - that's some clever little strip combinations that mean that one stitch repeat looks completely different in one colour than it does in two but I really think that there's an opportunity to open this up. There are 30 rows to the whole repeat, and two different stitch patterns that are repeated within it. I would recommend sticking to the 30 row repeat and keeping all of your colour repeats within that. It would be super easy to pencil out what the stitch pattern is going to look like and then use crayons to colour in your stripes.
The difficulty with that comes from combining the colours of the Patons' Washed Cotton. I adore this yarn. It was gorgeous to work with and when I make my own version of the 3990 I'll definitely be using it but I do think you could get more 'Eldora' colours if you go over to the Bamboo Cotton DK. Perhaps something like:
I also think that the Crimson would be amazing in there too.
However, doing so many colours does push the price up (£24 until Monday, £27 thereafter). Using just the three colours of the Patons' Washed Cotton DK costs just £17.70 which I think is a pretty good price for a pure cotton t-shirt. And such a pretty one!
Now, the pattern itself. It's a very modern shape, unlike anything else we have. You do a front and a back which are both the same, then the sleeves and then you pop them all on a circular needle and decrease it a lot. Booooooom. What that does mean is that it should be relatively easy to upsize this t-shirt which lots of us are going to need to do seeing as it stops at.... wait for it.... a size medium. Tsk tsk Patons, tsk tsk. I am planning to write a little info about how we would do that and insert it into every pattern so I'll make sure to keep you updated when I do that.
Apart from that, the lace work is very simple. It would be a great
something to make if you haven't even touched lace before. Very easy to
do and very easy to see where you've gone wrong. The elongated stitches
are like cheats lace too. Haha.
AND THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS?!?!!? IF YOU HAVE A DAUGHTER - SHE CAN HAVE ONE TOOOOOOOOO!
Patons 3994. Amazing!
I really rate this pattern, found it interesting but easy to knit, I followed the instructions from start to finish without thinking that I needed to change something (and that's very rare). I did misread them and made it a little short but actually I think that's pretty cute and might redo that on my version. Once I've finished everything else I'm doing...
Love Eleanor. xxxxxxxx
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